Week 8 Checkpoint

Threat Categorization

Torrey D Boyer

IT/240

August 7, 2013

The world of technology is threatened each day by malicious viruses and worms

that can cripple an entire company. I will explain how each virus or worm functions and

spreads through computer systems.

Boot Sector - is a virus that is spread by floppy disk. The disk is left in the drive with the virus and will spread to the C: drive during the next boot sequence.

File – is a virus that corrupts the computers executable files on a network. When the file is opened, the virus overwrites it and causes damage to the infected file.

Multipartite – is a virus that uses the boot sector to move quickly, infecting both the boot sector and the executable files at the same time. This makes the virus very dangerous because just by turning on the computer, the virus latches onto the hard disk and broadcasts malicious payloads throughout the program files.

Macro – is a virus that affects files that contain macro codes in them that is interpreted by an application. They are commonly spread by electronic emails.

Trojan horse – is a program that seems to be functioning normally but has a hidden malicious virus in it, and by accessing the system or computer, can corrupt the authorizations.

Email worms – is a worm or virus that is spread through email. They are usually sent as an attachment or spread inside the body of an email.

Instant Messaging Worms – or IM Worm, is a self replication malicious code that is spread by using instant messaging networks. They are usually spread by instant messaging networks such as Yahoo Messaging or other similar IM’s, and they infect users accounts, searches the user’s contact info and sends the virus to each contact.
File – Sharing networks Worms – is a worm that copies itself into a shared folder under a harmless name and sits until it’s downloaded onto the network a it spreads the infected file.
Internet Worms – are virus’ that scan the internet for vulnerable computers. The virus will make attempts to connect to the machines until they gain full access and infect files, folders, and hard disk.

The virus I picked in week 7 was the “NIMDA” virus. The category I would put

Put my virus in is an Exposure Threat. The virus was deliberate and sensitive information

was released or accessed due to the virus.

Reference

Stallings, W. (2009). Business Data Communications (6th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.